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The Friend of the Sea (FoS) is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that was set up to focus on the conservation of marine habitats and fisheries. Established in 2007, it was originally responsible for the development of the dolphin-safe project in tuna fisheries, and has since developed its own sustainable certification scheme for seafood products. Under Friend of the Sea criteria, certification of both wild caught and aquaculture products can be achieved. FoS is also involved in numerous promotional campaigns improve people’s understanding of the importance of purchasing and consuming sustainable seafood.

FoS promotes the use of their eco-label to give recognition to seafood products which have been certified to their criteria.

Scope

FoS sustainable certification may be applied to wild capture fisheries and aquaculture production. It operates its own chain of custody scheme to oversee the traceability of seafood products as well as fishmeal, fish feed and omega 3 oils.

The FoS has set standards for wild capture and aquaculture production, certification is achieved through approved third party audit against these standards.

Process

Stakeholders wishing to undertake FoS certification of a fishery or aquaculture species should contact FoS for initial scoping. FoS can indicate approved certification bodies capable of standard audit, only ISO accredited certification bodies are used.

Similarly, businesses’ wishing to utilise use of the FoS eco-label should contact Fos for direction in securing approved certification bodies to achieve ‘chain of custody’ certification for legitimate use of the FoS eco-label.